


Sparks, Steaks, and Stakes

by DarkVoid116



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Birthday Presents, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24298162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkVoid116/pseuds/DarkVoid116
Summary: A little adventure, a birthday, some Spuffy growth, a couple steaks, a few stakes, and a spark of romance.
Relationships: Spike/Buffy Summers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Sparks, Steaks, and Stakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [myrabeth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrabeth/gifts).



> Happy birthday, myrabeth! I tried to gift you a fun, romance-y S7 oneshot with some growth & adventure and a solid base. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Beta-read by bewildered, Kanotari & Twinkles.
> 
> Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Spike stilled in the quiet of the kitchen, listening to the rhythm of all the heartbeats as everyone slept. Everyone except for Dawn had retired for the night. She had plopped herself down at the table and was staring expectantly at him.

“What did you want to ask me?” she asked.

Spike winced at the coolness of her tone. Besides buggering up everything with Buffy, what he regretted most was letting his friendship with his Niblet fall apart. She’d never forgive him for hurting her sister. The threat to set him on fire stood out in his memories. “Was hoping you’d run interference for me so I could treat your sis to a night out of town for her birthday.”

Dawn gave him a calculating stare, her eyebrows rising slightly. “Why should I help you?”

“Maybe because your big sis needs some time off? It’ll be a strictly platonic night on the town, so don’t worry yourself.” Spike sighed. “Just... Slayer never has easy birthdays, right? Last year was the party that never ended, then three years ago was the Fyarl incident. The less said about the Cruciamentum or the Angelus year, the better. Just want to take a burden off her shoulders for a night, okay?”

Dawn’s eyes softened at his words, the tenderness Spike had gotten used to seeing that dreadful summer temporarily reappearing. “Okay.”

“Okay?” he asked, unable to keep the hope from his voice. 

“Yeah. I’ll keep everyone off your back whenever you want to take her out. Make sure she has fun, Spike? Please.”

The old warmth was back in her eyes and Spike thought for the first time since he’d gotten back to town that maybe after the First Evil business was over that they’d be okay. “Thanks, Bit.” He turned to leave, then thought better of it. “For what it’s worth, sorry I let you down. It meant a lot that you had faith in me. Just wish I’d lived up to the image you had of me.” He left before she shot down the dream he’d built up in his mind, the promises of their brother-sister rapport returning.

He ignored the soft words he could hear her whisper after him.

..........

“Spike, where are we going?” Buffy asked. She’d settled herself into his back, wrapping her arms around his torso as he began driving. It felt weird to be pressed so snugly into his back, to be in contact with his body at all. Ever since he’d gotten his soul, things between them had been different. Gentle. Hesitant. It was a far cry from the smoldering passion that their winter affair had brought the year before.

She didn’t know what to make of him now. Sometimes, small pieces of the vampire who’d grown on her bled through the cracks of his new persona. Bits of the man who’d sacrificed himself to protect Dawnie blended together with the tattered remains of the lovesick vampire who'd thought chaining her up was a good declaration of his feelings. He’d risen from the wreckage of their sexathon and subsequent mess of a breakup as something different entirely, wracked with guilt. Part of Buffy didn’t know how it was possible to begin to forgive the end-result of last year, but another, bigger part of her wanted to be a better person each day and move forward with whatever they were building now. Maybe the first small step in that road to a friendship was platonic motorcycle-snuggling. 

“Already told you, luv. It’s a secret.”

Buffy pouted, though Spike couldn’t see it under her helmet. Stupid vampire and his stupid secrecy. She leaned forward and rested her chin on his shoulder. “Wanna at least tell me how far it is ‘til we get there?” She could see exit signs whipping by as they went. 

Spike paused for a moment before he answered. “Just a few more minutes, I reckon.” They’d gotten onto the highway a couple of minutes after leaving home, and Spike drove fast, so they weren’t going too far.

“You’ll have to explain what the what is eventually, mister.” Buffy sighed and tried to let herself relax. Giles had thrown a fit when she explained that Spike wanted to take her on a surprise night trip. You need to teach these girls how to fight. We’re in a war, Buffy, he’d explained. Or, he’d tried to explain as if he were still talking to teenage her. Like she didn’t know that! She wasn’t even sure if Giles had remembered that it was her birthday. Nobody had time for silly things like birthdays with the original evil staring them down, apparently. Buffy got the urgency, truly, but sometimes she just wanted to enjoy herself for one night and forget about the horde of teenage girls occupying the guest bedrooms and the persistent, lovable friends taking up residence in her home, rent-free. Sometimes she needed a night off.

The wind whipping against the protective shield of her blood red helmet caused a weird sense of zen to wash over her. A motorcycle ride down the coast was exactly what she needed, especially with Spike. He’d make sure she enjoyed herself.

A few minutes later, an ugly green exit-sign came into view and she finally knew where they were going when she read Summerland. Trust Spike to find another town in sunny California that just sung to her name. He pulled off the freeway when they got to the exit and immediately turned towards the beach - the ocean smells were strong even under the musky inside-of-a-new-helmet smell. 

“How’d you find out about this place, Spike?” she whispered into his ear, ignoring how her body thrummed at the even-closer physical contact.

“Red looked it up on a bloody map, Slayer,” he snarked back at her.

Willow had helped him? That was ooky. Yeah, okay, she’d talked to Wills about her relationship - or whatever you could call it these days - with Spike, but she still never would’ve expected her to be all Supporto-Girl over Spike taking her to dinner, even platonically. “That must’ve been weird.”

“Nah. Not really. Red an’ I have something to bond over now. We’re both redeemed killers, right?” Spike asked. “She missed her witch a lot and knew I wouldn’t judge. We don’t do it often, but we sometimes talk about the guilt of being a murderer.”

That... surprised her? Willow had always just... been! Even last year, after the accident, after Rack, after Heaven, Buffy still forgave her as easily as she once had Angel. Some little part of her brain that should’ve connected forgiveness and sincere attempts to earn forgiveness must’ve come loose during one of her patrol fights along the way. Except for when it came to Spike. “Is she doing okay, now?” Buffy found herself asking. Gods, what kind of friend had she become? Her maybe-sorta confidant was apparently her best friend’s confidant too, instead of her.

“Think she’s living with it now. Don’t know if she ever found closure for her bird, though. Offing Mears wasn’t closure. You should talk to her about Tara - maybe, when this bollocks is all done, you can go to Tara’s grave and let her mourn properly. Watcher rushed her off to England too quickly when it was all over.”

“You can come too,” she offered. “You never got to say goodbye to her, either.”

Spike started slowing down, looking for a place to park his ride. “Good reason for that, luv. Didn’t deserve that.”

Buffy looked up when he finally put the brake down, looking across the street at a cosy shack of a restaurant emblazoned with Tinker Burger across the top. The grey siding on the outside of the restaurant stuck out to her as excessively welcoming. “We’re getting burgers?”

“They sell steak burgers, so I figure I can get some blood on my meal - even if it’s cow blood - and you can have a steak on your night off,” Spike said, turning to face her as he trailed off.

“Pun intended?”

“Always.”

..........

“God, this is really good, Spike,” she said around mouthfuls of her burger. She’d ordered it medium well to Spike’s rare - “Don’t even need to cook it if you don’t want to, mate.” - and with a sesame seed bun. She felt lighter than she had in weeks, sitting on a splintered wooden barstool at a corner table in what had turned out to be a wonderful little spot. She had decided a minute in that she’d return again at some point, after they averted the apocalypse.

“Nice to see you smile, luv,” Spike said. He had that bashful smile she’d come to appreciate as so very Spike, the one that meant he was trying to hide his feelings for her. 

Oh, she knew they were still there. Maybe he was more guarded post-soul, more careful with how he expressed them, but she was pretty sure he still felt for her, probably still loved her. “You said something like that at the wedding from hell,” she remembered. “When Anya had me in that radioactive dress.”

“You were glowing that night, even if you were jealous,” Spike teased. A tiny part of the old Spike broke through whenever he teased her like that, making him a subdued, new version of the guy who'd bantered his way into her pants whenever he wanted to last year.

“I was not jealous!” Buffy whispered indignantly. 

“Oh, come off it, luv. You hated seein’ me with that bird,” Spike began, hesitating briefly. She could see the doubt flash across his eyes before he continued. “Maybe you didn’t want me, but you didn’t want her to have me, either.”

Buffy hurriedly changed the topic before they dove into the deep end of that rabbithole. “I’m happy tonight. That’s all.” She was. It was crazy that one steakburger-filled meal could make her lighter and happier than all the dinners in the world with Giles and a bunch of screaming teenage girls looking to her for help. “This has been a pretty tough year.”

“Nobody said turning 21 was easy,” Spike said, stirring up memories from her last birthday.

Spike had brought her to a liquor store the day after the party-that-never-ended, explaining exactly how each type of alcohol could affect her mood. She’d always known his preferences, but he helped her sort through which general types of alcohol she might like. Ever since the Kitten Poker night and Beer Buffy night, she’d generally avoided alcohol like the plague, but the promise of getting fucked by Spike while enjoying her first legal cocktail had proved too good to pass up, so she eventually bought something that he made sound delicious in that too-sexy accent and rushed them back to his crypt.

That had been only a short time before her ex had shown up and blown it all to shit. Buffy came out of her thoughts when Spike pushed his plate away and ran his tongue across his lower lip. “Nobody even talks about 22,” she said in an effort to steer her thoughts back on track. 

“I graduated uni at 22,” Spike said. He sat back in his chair and straightened up when she gasped. “Bugger. Yeah, laugh it up. I got a proper education.”

“Not laughing, Spike. Always knew you were smart. You read me all those poems,” she said, revealing that she’d been listening. She’d never told him how often she’d been awake when he would run his fingers across her back in small, deliberate circles and whisper those words into her ears.

If he could have blushed, Buffy knew he would have been. “Yeah, well. Don’t want to talk about that. I was a ponce.”

“Don’t,” she responded automatically. “I like the sweet side you have. It’s the side Wills, Xan, and Giles never get to see. The one Mom and Dawnie did.” It’s the reason I fell for you she whispered in her mind.

Spike gave her a soft smile. “Thanks.”

Bothered by all of the emotional talk they were having, Buffy pasted on a bright smile. “Let’s get the check and walk around for a little bit before we head back.”

“Sounds good, pet,” Spike said, motioning with his hand. “We can go to the water.”

..........

“You miss days at the beach with your pals, Slayer?” Spike asked after a few minutes of silence walking along the sand. Spike’s mind was working overdrive to make sense of the evening. He was certain he and Buffy’d had important moments throughout dinner and the drive over. 

Like everything else that had been happening since his jaunt over the Atlantic, the night’s events confused the fuck out of him. The small voice inside his head that yelled unworthy! at him on loop was appalled that he and Buffy were getting closer again.

This time, he’d let her set the pace of how their friendship grew. If all she wanted was emotional support and a solid friendship, it would still be more than he deserved. He got that now. He knew that everything he worked towards was still tainted by Buffy Summers and her inherent goodness, but he’d been doing a right fine job at separating his love for her from her need for a friendship, a without-reservations pal.

“A little bit. Back when I lived in L.A. with Mom and Dad, I went pretty often,” she admitted. “I’ve been a few times with Xander and Willow, and once with Riley, but even those trips haven’t happened in awhile.”

“Too much happens in a hellmouth town,” Spike agreed easily. He’d brought them to this town because of that answer. Red had been very willing to shoot ideas back and forth with him once he’d silenced her worries. That the town shared part of Buffy’s last name was a bonus.

“Yeah. It really sucks. At least I have a real job now,” Buffy started, ignoring Spike’s low growl, “and that comes with some vacation time. If you or Wills can handle patrol, maybe Dawnie and I can take some small trips here and there in the future.”

Spike kept it to himself that he wanted to be the one showing her the world that the bloody Powers had kept her from seeing. His woman deserved all the stops. “Yeah, that’d be all right.”

“Have you been to Paris?” she asked.

Memories of Drusilla and Angelus floated around in his mind. “Yeah. Long time ago.”

He could read Buffy’s hesitation. “With Angel?”

“Yeah. Before the soul, though.”

She was hesitating again. “What was he like, back then, without the soul?”

Spike stopped, staring at her, unable to believe she was asking him about bloody Angelus, even more unable to believe she wanted to know about soulless Angelus. “A right bastard.”

Buffy fidgeted, plopping herself down on the sand. She stared forlornly out at the ocean, her mind clearly working a mile per minute. “When he first showed up in Sunnydale, he didn’t tell us about you or Drusilla or Darla. He didn’t even tell me he was a vampire. All of these years, a part of me has never been able to let go of the idea of him because I’ve been so good at separating them in my mind. So, please tell me about what he was like without a soul, Spike. It'll help.”

“Bloody interesting birthday topic, you picked there, Slayer. If you get squeamish, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” He kicked at the sand himself, wondering how much she could take - how much she should take. He decided not to pull punches. “Know what he did to Dru, right? That’s what he was like all the time, back then. He groomed and tortured his victims before making them his. He maimed, tortured, raped, and murdered. As I’ve heard Rupes say, he’s one of the worst, most heinous vampires in recorded history. Dru... She was his masterpiece, the best thing he’ll tell you he ever did when he’s all soulless, and the worst thing, when he’s souled up. He drove her bloody insane. He fucking raped her, slaughtered her family, and twisted her so far ‘round the bend that all he had to do was glare and she obeyed his every whim. I hated him for that.” Spike took a deep breath, calming himself. “Hated him for a lot of things. I’ve made a lot of bloody wrong calls, but I was always a disappointment to him. He was evil and sadistic. When Dru an’ I assembled that blue imbecile a few years back, the git had the ability to burn up the humanity in a bloke. When he read me, even without my soul, he said I reeked of humanity. When he did the same thing to Angelus, there wasn’t a trace of humanity to be found. He was an evil motherfucker, and even with that cursed soul, he merely redirected that sadism towards you.” Spike knew he should stop himself before saying something that irreparably damaged their budding friendship, but fuck, he despised his grandsire. “Tell me, pet - did you and your honeybear ever go to dinner like we did tonight? You an’ I aren’t even dating, yet we did more tonight than I remember you doing with Angelus that entire time.”

Buffy had grown more and more shocked as his words continued spilling out. Fuck, he knew he should have stopped. “Even without your soul, you had traces of humanity left?” 

What? Why the buggerin’ hell had she focused on that point? “Yeah,” he said slowly. 

“But Angel didn’t?”

Oh, that was where she was going with it. “Slayer, it wasn’t your fault that Angelus didn’t love you. I’m not even sure it’s true that he didn’t, inasmuch as it’s possible that overgrown wanker can love anyone. He was obsessed with you with and without the soul. Losing his soul just made him stop caring about how he treated you. He still cared about you - it just wasn’t positive caring anymore.” He’d spent way more of his evening dissecting Angelus and his split personalities than he’d have cared to. “Why are we doing this, luv?”

“I never got closure with Angel. We were like this star-crossed pair of lovers, destined to pine for each other, loving each other but unable to be with one another. Seeing how you adjusted to your soul, how you left as Spike,” she stressed, as if his name invoked a state of being, “and came back more or less the same... It’s gotten me thinking about Angel and me. About the future, about us, and Riley, and even Xander and Willow and their relationships. Ugh, I’m a mess. Apparently Birthday Buffy is all Thinky Buffy.”

Spike smiled at how she could still make a mockery of the English language in her own way. “I always had a better handle on my demon than he did. You’re right that I don’t feel much different. I feel more guilt, sure. I care a little bit more about humans than before, about the lives I’ve taken. I was always stronger than Angelus mentally, though. Tougher. The soul mostly makes better understand your moral code. It’s like having a sets of vampire morals and human morals fighting for control at the same time. What I am now is the result of getting control over it, making peace with my past. Angelus never wanted to do that.”

“I think you’re a better man without your soul than he is. He never would have come to us for help if he’d been chipped by the Initiative.”

“Too right. He would have burned down your entire block to get to you if he couldn’t directly hurt you.”

Buffy shuddered. “Okay, you were right. That’s enough about him. Let’s talk about you again. Are you... okay? After everything the First made you do?”

“Think so. It’s easier knowing that I didn’t have a choice, and that you believe in me, in the man I’m becomin’.” It was Spike’s turn to stare out at the Pacific, kicking aimlessly at the ground. “It lights a fire under me, your belief.” He turned and looked Buffy in the eye. “Thanks for that, pet.”

Buffy swallowed thickly, emotion clear in her eyes. “You’re welcome, Spike. Thanks for tonight. I had a lot of fun.”

“Anytime, Slayer. Wanna head back? We can catch a quick patrol before we go in.”

Buffy smiled. “Did you even need to ask?”

..........

Sunnydale’s cemeteries were unusually quiet. Buffy was secretly grateful for the reprieve. She and Spike had found a few vampires to stake during their rounds, mostly fledglings, but the quiet lull let them take turns fighting and admiring. He was the best fighter she’d ever gone up against and now the best fighter she’d ever allied with. Truthfully, he was better than her, but not quite as strong.

Even when they’d been enemies, she couldn’t help but respect his skill. He had years of practice perfecting his moves and strategy, and it was enough to make them even in a fight. 

Watching him from his right, she smiled as he drove a stake into the newest undead jock they’d come across, flinging her weapon back at her through the swirl of dust. “That’s your fifth of the night, Spike. Took a little long, though, buster. You’re slacking.” Her smile belied her words and Spike grinned back at her.

They walked along in silence to the next cemetery - Shady Hill, she was pretty sure - while considering the turn of the evening. “Do you think we’ll win this, Spike?”

“Of course. It’s what the bloody white-hats always do,” he said, and they both smiled, remembering similar words he’d said to her, ages ago.

“How are we going to manage it?” Buffy asked, worriedly biting her bottom lip. A year ago, the thought of an apocalypse might not have even been the worst thing, but now she wanted to live, wanted to grow up and see Dawn graduate high school and college. She even thought she might want to go back to college herself. She had so much more going for her, including this new, healthy friendship with Spike.

“We’ll research, and train the girls, and prepare spells. We’ll call in reinforcements, if need be. We’ll do what we do best, pet. We need to be aware of the fact that this thing can impersonate anyone who has died. That means Angel, us, Tara are all at risk there. If we stay together, we can do it. You can do it, luv.”

“Thanks, Spike.” She sighed. “Let’s go home after this one. I’m getting tired.”

“Sure thing, Slayer. Your birthday’s almost over, anyway. We should get back before midnight.”

Just as Spike said that, a trio of vampires stepped out from behind a nearby crypt, already in gameface. Buffy gripped her stake, wordlessly handing Spike her spare with her left hand, just in case. “My turn?”

“Go for it, Slayer.”

Buffy leapt at them, landing just in front of the rightmost vampire, instinctively ducking the attempted headbutt. She punched his chest with her stakeless arm, sweeping the brute’s legs out from under him in the next motion. The other two were immediately on her, a flurry of punches that she blocked by bracing her arms in front of her, dancing backwards at the same time. 

Her true advantage in these fights lay in her memory muscle. She’d fought in each of these cemeteries hundreds of times and had a perfect memory of the layout, to the point that she knew when a small tombstone was right behind her. She leapt up without a backwards glance and landed behind it, grinning when the vampire leading the charge tripped over it instead. One sweeping motion, one fewer vampire to deal with.

She caught Spike’s smirk.

The other vampire still trailing after her became enraged at his buddy’s dusting and lost his cool, charging her with sloppy, weak punches. She easily stalled him, jabbing her right hand towards his heart. Easy and done. 

She nodded towards Spike and watched as he went over towards the still-winded third vampire and put him out of his misery. “Nice work, luv.”

Buffy smiled a genuine smile at the reminder of Spike’s first words to her. “Thanks, Spike. Ready to go?”

He nodded. “Have fun tonight, Slayer?” he asked once they stepped into stride next to one another. 

“I did. Thank you. For once, a Buffy Birthday without a disaster!” She giggled.

“Just some really heavy conversation.”

“Yeah. About that, Spike... Thanks for being honest. I know you hate them. I know you love me. I get that it’s not always easy, being just my friend. I just... I can’t think about more than that right now. Maybe not ever. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but a hard maybe is the best I can give you in my current state of mind.”

“I’m not asking for anything from you, luv. I just wanted you to have a great birthday for a change. You deserve it. The fightin’ and emotional talk was just an added bonus.”

Buffy smiled up at him as they approached Revello Drive. So much of the evening had been enlightening. She still had a lot of issues to sort through, but Wills liked Spike, and her sister had always liked him, and she thought Xander might be coming around. He was still sweet, and hot. There was an apocalypse and a heap of Angel baggage to sort through still, but she felt lighter and happier than she had in a long time, and that was his doing.

“What are you thinking now in that pretty head of yours, pet?” Spike asked. They could see their home in the fluorescent glow up ahead.

“Why do you always use nicknames?” she asked instead, grateful for the quick distraction.

“I like ‘em. They’re more personal.”

“Would you like it if I gave you one?”

“I wouldn’t hate it.”

“Hm.” Buffy pretended to think, placing her thumb to her lips. “Will is too similar to what I call Willow. Spikey is a hard no-go. I know!” she exclaimed, her eyes alight. “How about Sparky?”

“You’re gonna be the death of me, luv. I’ll think about it. Happy birthday, Buffy,” Spike whispered, placing a kiss to her forehead as they turned the doorknob and returned to reality.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Happy birthday, myra!


End file.
